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Appl Water Sci (2012) 2:127–133 DOI 10.1007/s13201-012-0033-6
Hydrochemical analysis and evaluation of groundwater quality
in El Eulma area, Algeria
Lazhar Belkhiri • Lotfi Mouni
Received: 4 September 2011 / Accepted: 7 February 2012 / Published online: 28 February 2012 © The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The groundwater sources in the El Elma plain have been evaluated for their chemical composition and suitability for irrigation uses. Cluster analysis in Q-mode resulted in three major water types (HCO3-–Ca-2?domi-
nated, Cl-–HCO3-–Ca2?-dominated and Cl-–Ca2?–Na?-
dominated) for the groundwater. The US salinity diagram illustrates that most of the groundwater samples fall in C3S1 quality with high salinity hazard and low sodium hazard. Based on RSC values, all the samples of the three groups had values less than 1.25 and were good for irrigation. Keywords Hydrochemical · Q-mode cluster analysis · Irrigation · El Eulma area · Algeria
Introduction
Quality of groundwater is equally important to its quantity owing to the suitability of water for various purposes. Water quality analysis is an important issue in groundwater studies. Variation of groundwater quality in an area is a function of physical and chemical parameters that are greatly influenced by geological formations and anthropo- genic activities (Belkhiri et al. 2010).
The hydrochemical study reveals the quality of water that is suitable for drinking, agriculture and industrial
purposes and helps in understanding the change in quality due to rock–water interaction or any type of anthropogenic influence (Kelley 1940; Wilcox 1948). The chemical parameters of groundwater play a significant role in clas- sifying and assessing water quality. It was observed that the criteria used in the classification of waters for a particular purpose considering the individual concentration may not find its suitability for other purposes and better results can be obtained only by considering the combined chemistry of all the ions rather than individual or paired ionic characters (Handa 1964, 1965; Hem 1985). Chemical classification also throws light on the concentration of various predom- inant cations, anions and their interrelationships.
The present work had the objective of understanding the spatial distribution of hydrochemical constituents of ground- water related to its suitability for agriculture and domestic use and application of cluster analysis.
Study area
The study area is located in the East of Algeria (Fig. 1). Most of its inhabitants are concentrated in the town of El Eulma with more than 30,000 inhabitants working mainly in the production of cereals (barley, corn). The climate of the study area is considered to be semi-arid region, with an annual precipitation being approximately 421 mm. The rainy season extends from October to May, with a maxi-
mum rainfall during December and March of each year.
L. Belkhiri (&)
University of Batna, 05000 Batna, Algeria e-mail: BELKHIRI_Laz@yahoo.fr L. Mouni
De´partement des Sciences Techniques, Institut des Sciences, Universite´ Akli Mohand Oulhadj, Bouira, Algeria
The mean monthly temperature varies between -3 and 38°C, the mean annual temperature of 15°C. The vegeta- tion of the study area is characterized by grasses and herbs. Soils are generally sandy to clayey in texture and mostly classified as arid-sol and are calcareous. Mineralogically, most of the soils are dominated by kaolinite, illite,
